What's happening down on the allotment? An intimate account of a passionate veggie grower.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

There is such a close relationship between growing your own fruit and vegetables, and cooking and eating them in your own kitchen. I was very keen recently to give a short interview to Womans Weekly magazine about blogging, eating and cooking. Sadly I have never been into knitting or sewing so they left that bit out!

Even now, in late March I still have quite a few of these Queensland blue and Crown Prince squash keeping nicely on a warm windowsill. This picture below is actually a cross between these two varieties.

This type of Southern hemisphere Winter Squash have a low moisture content and a lovely, thick waxy skin to help give it a long shelf life... or windowsill life. So long as it remains warm and dry I have kept them for more than a year like this.

So when Womans Weekly asked me to share a recipe, I thought back to when I made the Original Pumpkin pie recepie. When the first settlers arrived in the New World it is known that the first pumpkin pie was known as a Norfolk Millions Pie which was only a slight variation on what we know today. The term 'millions' may have either referred to the fact that pumpkins were highly prolific, or pumpkins were slightly different then and resembled Melons a bit more than they do nowadays.

If some pumpkins can keep on my windowsill for a year, then they must have survived the journey from the Old World to the New World all those years ago.

8 Comments:

food history is fascinating. I'm never sure how they can tell where a fruit or vegetable really originates. Have you read about Bligh of the Bountry transporting breadfruit from the Pacific to the Caribbean?

About Me

I was born 20 yards from our allotment. My parents used to 'dig for victory' and never got out of the habit. I grew up on an allotment, so growing veggies is a way of life. I am also qualified as a dog behaviourist and I have set up my own business, www.blackdogdna.com